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Airtel Completes Largest Network Transformation in African Telecoms HistoryNAIROBI, Nov 19, 2012 /African Press Organization via COMTEX/ -- Bharti Airtel ("Airtel") (http://www.airtel.com), a leading telecommunications services provider with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, today said that it has undertaken an end-to-end network transformation program across its mobile operations in 16 African countries. The program, which is the largest of its kind on the African continent, in partnership with Ericsson involved a comprehensive upgrade and expansion of network elements on all of Airtel's African operations, including switching, radio, network management, data, charging, and consumer-services platforms and systems. Logo: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/airtel.jpg This network transformation program, under which Ericsson has deployed latest wireless technologies, will enhance Airtel's network capacity and robustness and help deliver best-in-class services to customers at affordable rates. This also makes Airtel's networks fully ready for next generation services that include high speed data and value added services. In addition, a full upgrade of the charging platforms across all operations was implemented introducing the latest version of Ericsson's Charging System, enabling Airtel to offer subscribers new and innovative value-added services such as mobile wallets. This project which will result in Airtel's 60+ million customers having a better experience on their networks. Eben Albertyn, Chief Technical Officer, Airtel Africa said "Customer is at the core of everything we do at Airtel. The implementation of this transformation program will enable us to further enrich our customer experience across the region. It allows us to provide Airtel subscribers with the best network possible while meeting the growing usage of mobile data. Our long-standing relationship with Ericsson gave us confidence in their ability to manage and deliver such a large and complex project." Backed by 12,000 consulting and systems integration professionals across the world, over one hundred resources worked onsite to ensure successful delivery of this complex project - the largest network modernization program in Africa's telecom history. Ericsson's systems integration organization delivers more than 1500 systems integration projects per year in multi-vendor and multiple-technology environments. Projects range from single-solution integrations to end-to-end solution transformation projects such as this one. Lars Lindén, head of Ericsson Sub-Saharan Africa, says, "In the transition to a Networked Society in Africa, operators are facing growing challenges in meeting the rapidly evolving demands of consumers. The focus of this project was transforming Airtel Africa's networks to meet current and future consumer demands." This transformation program follows the 2011 announcement of an ongoing five year multi-country managed services agreement, wherein Ericsson would manage and optimise Airtel's mobile networks across Africa. Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of Bharti Airtel Limited. NOTES TO EDITORS About Bharti Airtel Bharti Airtel Limited (http://www.airtel.com) is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 4 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 259 million customers across its operations at the end of September 2012. To know more please visit, http://www.airtel.com About Ericsson Our multimedia content is available at : http://www.ericsson.com/press Ericsson is the world's leading provider of communications technology and services. We are enabling the Networked Society with efficient real-time solutions that allow us all to study, work and live our lives more freely, in sustainable societies around the world. Our offering comprises services, software and infrastructure within Information and Communications Technology for telecom operators and other industries. Today more than 40 percent of the world's mobile traffic goes through Ericsson networks and we support customers' networks servicing more than 2.5 billion subscribers. We operate in 180 countries and employ more than 100,000 people. Founded in 1876, Ericsson is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2011 the company had revenues of SEK 226,9 billion (USD 35.0 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ, New York stock exchanges. http://www.ericsson.com http://www.twitter.com/ericssonpress http://www.facebook.com/technologyforgood http://www.youtube.com/ericssonpress FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Ericsson Corporate Public & Media Relations E-mail: [email protected] |
